Stress can creep on us gradually or appear suddenly depending on the cause of our stress. Many of us have developed coping skills to handle certain amounts of stress. Sometimes certain ways we de-stress are temporary and don’t allow us to fully heal from the stress. Therefore, it’s important to look at common ways that we can actually make our stress worse. Here are 5 mistakes we can make when feeling stressed.
- Distracting yourself. While some distraction can allow your mind to rest, keeping so busy that you don’t ever think of the problems that are causing your stress is not healthy.
- Keeping to yourself. Everyone can cope with stress uniquely, according to your personality. Sometimes having some alone time can help. However, isolating and thinking that other people don’t care about your problems or allowing others to help you can often hurt you.
- Overeating or consuming too much alcohol. Sometimes having more food or drinking can sound good in the moment and can even temporarily make you feel better. Perhaps hanging out with friends while eating and drinking can seem like a good distraction. Stress eating/drinking can be unhealthy and end up causing health problems if not dealt with.
- Often, we want to avoid or put off the inevitable. Putting off things can sometimes add to our stress instead of dealing with them right away.
- Overthinking your situation. Spending time thinking about your stress can be normal, but excessive ruminating can be unhealthy. Allow your mind to process your stress, but take a necessary break from it as well.
